Facades+ returns to Houston with a program focused on prominent local buildings

Facades+ returns to Houston for the primary time since 2015 on April 13. After profitable occasions in Austin and Dallas in 2022, Facades+ is worked up to current a technical program that caters to Houston’s native viewers. AN has labored with co-chairs Luisina Basilico, principal at Web page, and Rives Taylor, principal and co-director of design resilience at Gensler, to carry a full-day symposium to Houston.

Repositioning Downtown: Facade Renewal and Placemaking

The day begins with a have a look at Houston’s rapidly-changing downtown by way of the lens of two initiatives. Gensler principals Dean Strombom and Suzanne Screider will current their repositioning work on 2 Houston Heart. The mission includes a new, three-story glass podium connected to an current constructing, which not solely supplies pedestrian connections however enhances the constructing’s envelope efficiency. This presentation will probably be adopted by a have a look at RIOS’s Wyatt Sq., a restaurant constructing that’s a part of the sq.’s bigger redevelopment. The mission, opening later this yr, includes a timber-structured roof clad in ceramic tile. RIOS senior mission designer Cameron Stewart and Corgan mission architect Ben Kleiner will current the six-faced envelope, emphasizing the significance of contemplating below-grade ranges and the roof as essential to a high-performance envelope.

Realizing Analysis on Excessive-Efficiency Facades

The morning continues with a roundtable on high-performance facade analysis. Web page senior constructing efficiency analyst Mo ElSayed and Gensler affiliate Alfonso Hernandez will focus on how design corporations can switch their analysis to observe in a dialog moderated by Web page affiliate designer Jenni Huynh.

The Houston Endowment Headquarters: Reaching for Internet-Zero Design in Houston

Kevin Daly, John Hand of Arup, and Leon Fernandez of Kinetica will dive deep into the small print of what makes the award-winning, Houston Endowment constructing successful. The crew will focus on the design intent for the light-weight construction, its cover and facade detailing, and the character of the crew’s distinctive collaboration. It would spotlight the constructing’s envelope’s vitality efficiency, daylighting methods, pure air flow strategies, and materials choice. The panel will characteristic architectural, engineering, and fabrication views that mix to inform the story of the mission’s collaborative supply.

Refacing Rice: Modern Envelope Design for a Historic Campus

SOM’s Michael Oerth will probably be joined by Rice College’s campus architect George Ristow in a deep dive into Rice College’s new Ralph S. O’Connor Engineering and Science Constructing. The constructing options passive design methods behind a brick-faced envelope, bridging environmentally-conscious design with the campus’s conventional look. The design combines a low window-to-wall ratio, daylighting methods, superior insulation, low-carbon masonry, and a singular rainscreen. This presentation goals to speak how the mission will obtain vitality reductions by way of passive design methods at a big scale, as this highly-visible constructing covers 250,000 sq. toes on Rice’s historic campus.

The Ismaili Heart Houston: A Tapestry of Stone

Elliot Hodges, director of Farshid Moussavi’s London workplace, will current the Ismali Heart for the primary time to a Houston viewers. Whereas up to date in its execution and expression, the constructing pulls from historic precedents, notably Persian types and decoration, together with ceramic mosaics and screens drawn from Islamicate traditions all over the world. The Heart’s exterior is marked by areas of strong stone that give solution to a porous display, leading to shading components throughout the constructing.

Scaled-Down Facades: Wooden, Masonry, and Glazing on the Montrose Collective

A presentation concerning the Montrose Collective from Michael Hsu Workplace of Structure’s Jeff Clarke, Radom Capital Principal Evan Peterson, and Luisina Basilico of Web page will conclude the day’s program. The mixed-use growth in Houston was designed to replicate the encircling neighborhood. The mission options an energetic materials palette of wooden shingles, tiling, and masonry. The presentation will deal with materials choice and the creation of blended facades for mixed-use growth that meets various shopper wants.

Extra info on the Facades+ program—together with the way to register to attend—is offered right here.